Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Veal Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Dip the veal slices in the beaten egg yolks.
Strew bread crumbs, sweet herbs, lemon peel, and nutmeg over the veal.
Fry the veal in a pan with fresh butter until cooked.
While frying, prepare a little gravy.
Once the meat is done, remove it and place it in a dish before the fire.
Shake a little flour into the pan and stir it around.
Add the gravy and lemon juice, stirring well.
Pour the sauce over the cutlets and garnish with sliced lemon.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, bread, nutmeg, butter, flour):
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, bread, nutmeg, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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